Pony: I giveth thou the chapter called thirteen!
Disclaimer Dude: That didn't make any sense!
Pony: Indeed, Disclaimer Dude… indeed.
Disclaimer Dude: Pony doesn't own Neopets.
The Tale of a Lupe and a Faerie
Chapter Thirteen: Play and Prejudice
The shoyru zipped between the Soup Faerie and a grarrl wrapped in a large scarf who was first in line. The green Neopian snarled and whipped the tip of his tail after the child grumpily, which made the kid stumble. He flapped his wings to keep from falling and raced onward with a giggle.
Blaze cast a stern scold warningly at the grarrl, angered that the reptilian actually whipped his powerful tail at the fragile child. "Hey, what was that? You could've hurt the little guy."
The large reptilian pet glowered moodily at Blaze and held his bowl of steaming soup close as he took a sniff, purposely ignoring the lupe. He gave a curt nod to the faerie and went to a bench to eat. The red kacheek behind him shook her head, frowning at the ill-tempered grarrl's back as she stepped up into his place "Don't mind Larry," she said, voice soft. "He's sore because he couldn't complete his faerie quest."
"Oh, I see." Blaze gave the red kacheek a nod, then his attention shifted back to Flamo as he dropped onto his belly and crawled under one of the benches. "Excuse me." The lupe passed the line to pursue the little child.
Flamo was, by this time, all the way across the room, having crawled up on a chair, and then the table, run across it -- thankfully there weren't many neopets eating at that table yet -- and leapt to the countertop, flapping his small wings and making it just barely. He looked back in time to see Blaze drop to try to go under the table, and snickered before scrambling behind a bunch of oversized jars next to the sink.
The lupe squeezed back out from under the table and searched the area for any sign of the elusive child. Eventually, he spotted the tip of his tail sticking out from behind the row of jars. He smirked to himself and wandered over to the countertops, pretending to be completely unaware of the kid. "Okay… where did the little guy go…?"
Zeek, who had been watching the whole thing, slapped both hands over his mouth to smother a giggle. Daisy looked over and whispered, asking what was going on. The kacheek pointed to the jars - they were located on the other side of the kitchen and could see Flamo crouched behind the jars with his hands over his head. Daisy burst out laughing uproariously and fell back on the floor. Minga held her flippers over her beak in order to prevent the fit of incoming giggles. She soon gave in, joining the cybunny on the floor, laughing hysterically.
Blaze wandered closer and closer to the group of jars that were keeping the blue shoyru mostly hidden. Then, he swiftly snatched Flamo's tail, plucking him from behind the jars, and holding him up in front of his face that held a smug, yet playful grin. "Found ya."
Flamo squealed and flailed with all six limbs. "Nooo, I've been captured! Captured by the pirate captain! Zeek! Minga! Save me!"
Zeek and Minga were far too busy laughing to be of assistance, but Daisy leapt up shouting, "I'll save you, Flamo!" She ran for the table, using a chair to reach it and grab a spoon and bowl. The bowl became a helmet, and she charged at Blaze, waving the spoon and yelling a war cry.
"Stay back!" Blaze grinned, holding the wet towel close to Flamo's face. "Stay back or I'll scrub his face!"
Daisy skidded to a stop on the scuffed wooden floor, catching herself on one paw as she stumbled forward. Her spoon tapped the floor as she pushed back to her feet, shoulders thrown back as she scowled up at Blaze and Flamo, young mind turning over the ultimatum. She finally pouted and dropped her spoon, then crossed her arms over her chest. "No fair," she pronounced.
Blaze smirked. "Then I guess Flamo's gonna have to have his face cleaned." He brought the wet towel to the shoyru's syrup-covered face, wiping the mess off in a few short scrubs.
"Noooo!" howled Flamo, struggling to push the towel away from him and flailing to keep from getting cleaned off.
Minga and Zeek were still laughing, and Daisy kept on pouting, and the Soup Faerie looked on with amusement and sympathy. She was slowly working through the line, and most of the customers were entertained by the ruckus.
"There, all clean," Blaze stated and discarded the towel, then set Flamo down on the floor beside the red cybunny. "The captain will let you go this time, but next time, you may not be so lucky." He grinned, winking at the child.
"Oh, yeah? GET HIM!" the shoyru commanded the other children, lunging himself at the tall lupe.
Daisy followed immediately, her pout disappearing. She whooped in delight and snatched up her spoon, racing up to attack with it like a sword. Minga was a little slower to get the memo, and sat up to watch with wide eyes as Zeek charged in as well, rushing up to grab Blaze's tail and pull. Finally, the pink bruce pulled herself up and ran… away from the roughhousing. She rushed over to the Soup Faerie and pulled on her pants leg. "Hewlp us, Faewie!" she pleaded, pulling her toward the struggle.
The faerie wavered a moment, then gave the next in line his bowl of soup. She scooped up Minga and fluttered over to the fray, leaping on Blaze with a war cry.
The red canine laughed, letting out feigned cries of pain and terror with over exaggerated dramatization. "I can't defeat you… You're too strong… too powerful…!"
There were surprised murmurs and a few chuckles from those who could see the fray, a few cheers for the kids and some sympathetic encouragement for the beleaguered lupe. The kids did their best to hold down the various limbs they had gotten a hold of, and the small Soup Faerie sat on his chest. But then she got a positively wicked gleam in her eyes, and leaned down to tickle him mercilessly along the sides of his ribs.
Blaze burst with laughter as his sensitive ribs were under attack by the delicate fingers of the Soup Faerie. His body wriggled under the weight of her in a pathetic attempt to escape her good-natured tickle torture. "M-mercy!"
"Keep tickling him, miss Soup Faerie!" Zeek urged the faerie, thoroughly amused with the scene.
"Gotcha, Zeek," she replied, grinning down at Blaze impishly, not giving him a chance to wriggle away or breathe.
The kids had gotten the idea by now and Daisy gave up bashing at him with her spoon and began tickling at the fur on one of his paws. Minga, Flamo, and Zeek followed suit, each positioning themselves at the lupe's remaining paws, tickling them as vigorously as they could. Poor Blaze gasped for air between his hysterical laughter. By now, he knew escaping the barrage of tickling was futile, and he laid there, taking it until they would decide to give him a break.
The Soup Faerie reveled in the moment of power, and felt giddy with the rush of unbridled fun to her head. She was only distantly aware of the crowd of Neopians watching, growing impatient that they weren't being fed. Blaze was gasping for breath by this point, and she finally eased up on him, and called to the kids, "All right, guys, I think he's taken all he can. We don't want to break him. He could be a valuable hostage."
The children obediently ceased their tickling, allowing the lupe to catch his breath from the session. He sat up, panting heavily with a wide grin upon his furry maw.
The Soup Faerie smiled around at the kids to thank them for stopping and to share their triumph. She looked down at Blaze, victory shining in her eyes, and got off of him so he could sit up. "That's what you get for your nefarious deeds, pirate. Now that we have defeated you, you shall serve in the galleys as kitchen slave until the end of your days!"
"Oh, no… any… anything but… that…!" Blaze panted, in mock defiance.
"Yes!" Minga exclaimed, standing on her tiptoes for emphasis. "Yew wiwll cook fowr us forever!"
"Yeah!" piped in Flamo, warming to the idea. "Pancakes for breakfast everyday! And cake and ice cream for lunch! And…" He thought hard, and Zeek piped up.
"And macaroni and cheese and hot dogs for dinner every night!" Flamo nodded vigorously.
"And bwownies," Minga added.
"Ice cream and cake for lunch?" Blaze chuckled. "Wouldn't you rather have healthy vegetables?"
"Eww!" Zeek scrunched up his face in disgust at the thought of ingesting vegetables.
"I hate vegeti-tables," said Flamo, sticking his tongue out.
"You heard them, pirate. No veggies for this crew. They want ice cream to put hair on their chests." The boys giggled and threw out said chests, and the girls "eeewww"ed in unison. "Until lunchtime, I suggest you get to work on your secondary duties of entertaining your new crew."
"Aye, aye, lassie," the lupe laughed softly, his grin then stretching wider. "You know… you're a real cute little lady. Maybe we should get to know each other better."
The smile on the Soup Faerie's face disappeared into a blush. The noise in the room dimmed a little. There were some strange looks, a few chuckles, and the Soup Faerie straightened and stared back with a perky smile. "You may hang out with the grown-ups when you've finished your chores for the day, Cinderella." With that, she went back to her pot and began ladling soup to the waiting neopets.
Blaze's eyes followed the Soup Faerie as she headed back to the cauldron. His attention was suddenly averted when Flamo jumped on his head, grabbing a hold of his muzzle.
"Gotcha!"
He laughed happily as the remaining children proceeded to crawl all over him, giggling with bliss. The lupe gave each of the children an occasional affectionate nuzzle as they wrestled with him.
A blue aisha glanced over at the red lupe and the children as she received her soup. "He certainly is good with children. It's too bad he's too big. He would make a terrific father."
The Soup Faerie served soup with her usual good cheer, and only the oldest of her regulars might have noticed that she was distracted. She couldn't help but keep looking over at Blaze and the children, and whenever she looked, she couldn't help but smile. A glow of warmth suffused her, making her feel whole and at peace. 'This was what infatuation was like,' she thought. She handed a bowl to a blue aisha, and listened with half an ear as she looked over at Blaze… and felt her stomach go hollow. The happy glow vanished, and she looked at the aisha, nonplussed. She flushed with anger. "He is not too big," she hissed. "And he will make a terrific father," she added without thinking.
The row of pets who weren't transfixed by the group at play brought their full attention to the Soup Faerie, shocked at her sudden enraged outburst. The aisha's jaw dropped, nearly dropping her bowl as well. "I… I'm sorry, S-Soup Faerie… but… it's… impossible for a pet his size to have a-any sort of… relationship with any normal pet… I-it wouldn't work."
The faerie didn't notice that her anger had drawn notice, and was too angry to care anyway. "You say normal like he doesn't count, like he's some kind of circus freak." She shook her head, her face showing her disappointment. She tried to let go of her anger, but she couldn't accept the validity of the aisha's matter-of-fact prejudice. "Never mind. Please, enjoy your soup."
The aisha blinked, dropping the matter when the Soup Faerie dismissed it, and sat down at a bench to eat. The neopet next in line, and orange meerca, bounced forward on her tail. "Please excuse my friend, Soup Faerie. I'm sure the lupe will be a good papa. There's always the possibility of adopting a child, right?"
The Soup Faerie couldn't quite summon her previous effervescent feeling, and she nodded to the meerca woodenly, her smile faint. "Of course. He's already taking care of Zeek, and you can see how good he is with him." Her voice sounded hollow even to her own ears.
"That's wonderful, he'll have someone to love dearly," the meerca beamed, unaware of how her words may have sounded to the faerie.
The Soup Faerie smiled wryly and handed a bowl of soup to the meerca. "Love is precious. We should all love someone so much."
"Indeed it is, and we should. Thank you." The meerca happily accepted the bowl of soup after dropping to her feet - to avoid spilling any if she were to continue hopping - and joined her friend.
The next neopet in line was a brown elephante, an old regular. He stepped forward with a soft smile upon his wrinkled face, his eyes conveying many years of life experiences. The sight of the familiar old elephante brought a real smile to the Soup Faerie's face, and she greeted him warmly with a quick hug. "Good morning, Willifer, how have you been? I have your favorite today, chowder."
"Good morning, Soup Faerie. Besides the fact that I'm an old geezer and the blind edges around my eyes are getting closer to the middle, I've been doing fine." The aged elephante returned the hug, his smile growing as he pulled away.
Chuckling softly, the faerie dished up a bowl for him. "I swear you were old when you first started coming here, and you haven't aged a day since. Sometimes I think you never were a kid, and you just play at getting older," she told him with a sparkle in her eyes. "What have you been up to?"
"Oh, same thing everyday, which is just enough for me to handle." Willifer placed his hands on his back as he leaned back a little, popping tension from it with a satisfied groan. "Those natural remedies my owner's giving me have been helping with my arthritis."
"Good, good. Chased any more young hooligans off your lawn?" She set his bowl on the table so he could sit across from her, and started dishing up soup for the next in line.
"Haha! No, I think they learned their lesson. At least for another week," he laughed, carefully sitting down to eat. He turned his head into the direction of Blaze and the children once his ears caught the sound of a shrill squeal that came from Minga. The lupe had the little pink bruce enveloped in an arm.
The squeal called the Soup Faerie's attention as well, and she again couldn't keep a smile back at the sight of the lupe and the pack of children, though this smile was tinged with sadness. The world was unpleasant for oddballs - not necessarily cruel, but certainly not accommodating. She had no doubt that Blaze would fight to the last ounce of his strength for someone else to have what they wanted, but he never seemed to give the barest of thought for himself. She shook her head and passed out another bowl to a waiting pet. "What do you think of my new kitchen hand?" she asked Willifer.
"He's family friendly," the elephante responded with an approving smile. "It's hard to find young men who ain't afraid to show their soft and nurturing side these days."
The faerie snorted at that. "You should talk, old man. You're about as soft and nurturing as aged boot leather," she groused at him amiably, though it wasn't true. Willifer was a great friend. "And he's a kitchen hand," she added, "not a candidate for 'Poster Lupe'." She still wasn't quite sure what Blaze was to her, of course. And she wasn't sure how much she was brave enough to reveal to the world about their relationship.
"Well, a fellow like that should have a mate." Willifer was about to bring up the lupe's size, but decided that would only upset the faerie. It was obvious to him that the lupe meant something special. That, he could already pick up just by powers of observation.
"Mm," she hummed noncommittally, lowering her eyes to the soup. She served another customer before speaking. "Of course he should. Everyone should have someone," she said, falling back on what she had said to the meerca. "What about you, Willifer? You strike me as good marriage stock. Where's the pretty young thing for you?" she winked.
Willifer chuckled. "As a matter of fact, I'm seeing a lovely old lass. Classy thing she is." The old elephante sighed, the expression on his face matching giddy feelings overwhelming him as his mind went to the mentioned female.
Blinking in surprise, she tilted her head to regard the love-struck elephante. "Oh, really? And why haven't you brought her around for me to meet yet, hmm?"
"Because I just met her a few days ago," said Willifer, finishing his chowder. "You'll meet her soon. What about you? Met anyone who strikes your fancy yet?"
The faerie focused very carefully on not looking at Blaze. In fact, she turned her back on the lupe under the excuse of spooning out more soup for the next customer, and laughed. "I'm the Soup Faerie, old codger. Who would I be interested in?" she returned evasively.
"Come on, there must be someone," Willifer chuckled, making sure he got every bit of chowder from the bowl he could possibly get.
She turned to look at him, trying to keep her expression blank. "Nosy, as usual. I really don't know who you expect me to take a fancy to," she leaned forward and lowered her voice mischievously, "Unless you're suggesting something scandalous about me and that cute little Shop Wizard who lives up the road."
Willifer laughed. "Oh, Soup Faerie. You and I both know he's married and has a couple kids. Though it really wouldn't surprise me if you took a liking to a neopet, you're around them all the time."
She pulled back so fast she bumped into the cauldron and dropped her spoon in. She knew she was turning bright red, so she dived over the edge of the pot on the pretense of trying to retrieve her spoon. From inside the pot, her voice echoed. "See what you made me do with your shenanigans?" She surfaced with the spoon, her arm covered in soup, and grimaced, heading to the counter for a towel to clean up. She glared at Willifer. "Hmph. Don't say things like that. It's not right."
The elephante raised a brow. "What's not right?"
The faerie was obviously distressed by the turn in conversation, and she glanced around at the pets who were eating nearby. Only a few more were at the door, and she went over to serve them, trying to regain her composure. Her mood was all over the map today. "Nothing. Just, that kind of relationship… it isn't normal." Her voice was very low, and she hurried through giving soup to the last few before going to shut the door.
"Neither is interspecies pet relationships, but they happen all the time. My lady friend just happens to be a wocky," he said as his gaze followed the Soup Faerie, very observant, sensing something was up.
She shook her head, and felt her bandana sliding back, and readjusted it so that the loose strands of hair were tucked away. A couple of the stragglers finished their soup and got up to leave with a courteous thanks to the Soup Faerie. She sat next to Willifer with her arms around her ribs. "But you're all pets. That's completely normal."
"Bah. What is normal anyway?" Willifer shrugged lightly. His eyes went back over to Blaze and the children who were still in the heat of play, then he gazed back at the Soup Faerie, and leaned in, his voice at a whisper, "It's that lupe, ain't it?"
